AN: I'm sorry if you guys get sick of these, but I'm probably going to do one every chapter, because I really cannot say enough how much I appreciate you guys giving my writing the time of day. Special thanks to those of you dropping reviews, it genuinely makes my day to hear your guys' thoughts.
To clarify a quick couple things mentioned in reviews and PM's, I intend to keep chapters about 10k words maybe one or two thousand less on occasion, but as long as I have the time to write as much as I've been able to, I want to keep chunking them out.
Yes, a couple romances will be pursued, though I'd rather not say for sure who's going to be getting close with whom just yet.
And yes, Sasuke has been a little neutered purely by consequence of not wanting him to be as invincible as he might be otherwise. The energy possessed by the people in the Avatar-verse conflicts with his chakra, making it more difficult for him to perform certain actions and jutsus. For the moment, anyway. And this is also post EMS and pre Rinnegan.
Much love to you guys, please feel free to keep dropping reviews and PM's, means so much to hear from and interact with you guys.
Chapter 3: Gathering Storm
Staring out over his kingdom from the highest point of his palace, Fire Lord Ozai looked down at every single piece of the capital with spiteful eyes. What of it he wouldn't trade to have this over and done with.
Since taking the title of Fire Lord and continuing his family's conquest of the world's nations, he had been forced to make sacrifices, a great many of them, to ensure that peace could finally be forced and satisfied. His distancing from his own humanity had been beneficial in keeping emotion from presenting itself as a stark weakness that he had seen rule over the decisions of many an unsuccessful leader.
But this… this was something he still didn't know if he could do.
The ritual had been clear in its requirements no matter how many translators he had brought on and threatened harsh punishment on for reading incorrectly, but they had all stammered the same inescapable truth.
Grandfather… I don't know if I have the strength.
This sentiment rotted in his head miserably. Ozai already had prepared himself for what was to come and he was ready to face whatever pain this might bring, if the resulting consequences were as overwhelmingly advantageous as they promised to be. He would do what he must, to do what even his own heartless father had apparently warned away as being too steep a cost. Azulon had locked away this secret, clearly confident that the sheer power Sozin's Comet granted on its own would be enough to secure victory for the Fire Nation.
But Ozai was no longer sure of this. The Avatar had managed to survive to this point, and it had already been established that invasion of the Fire Nation from a joint effort was possible. And above all else, the very idea of the Avatar State was enough to instill apprehension on its own.
Ozai had heard from his both his spies and from his scholars how devastating this transformation could be. In this form, the Avatar would be quite literally unstoppable, even with the advent of Sozin's Comet drawing near. If the Fire Lord made his move on that day, the Avatar State would likely meet him in the flesh, and then decades upon decades of planning would have been for naught.
And so it came down to this.
A way to use Sozin's Comet in an entirely new sense, a method that may very well allow Ozai the ability to suppress the Avatar State. And all it required was one last sacrifice, one last cost that could guarantee ultimate success. The price was so simple, it was rather unbelievable.
And part of Ozai wished that he indeed couldn't believe it.
Behind him, a servant approached and bowed deeply, "Your highness, Princess Azula's airship has been confirmed on approach. Our estimates place her arrival at about dusk."
Ozai dismissed the update with a wave and the servant retreated, leaving the Fire Lord to be alone again with his thoughts. The morning sun beat down on him like the molten hands of some wicked clock, reminding him of what was to come.
He stood atop his tower for well over another hour before turning to reenter his palace, leaving all doubt, and all trepidation behind him. As he descended the stairs, he once again through off the invisible shroud that was his humanity, that loathsome and heavy burden that did nothing but cause trouble to those in power. His own self-assurance blossomed with every step and he found himself smiling before he knew it. After all, there could be nothing of more value then the greater good.
Sasuke sat around the fire that made up the center of the Avatar's camp, occasionally dipping into the meal that had been provided for him while he tried to ignore the endless awed expressions that were directed his way. Katara, Toph and Zuko had all ceased in attacking him for the reason he now understood as they believed him to be some sort of modern miracle, and he had been ushered down to their camp to try and straighten out some likely very heavy notions. Sasuke had cast the briefest genjutsu on Aang and found that the kid was telling the truth, and since he now had somehow been led right to the person he was expecting to take weeks trying to find, he knew he had no reason to deny this conversation. Trust was going to be a very fickle thing in this new world, but he had to start somewhere.
He could have done without their constant staring though; with just under a dozen people fixing him with hardly blinking expressions, he wouldn't deny feeling unnerved.
"So, let me get this straight," he said slowly, after taking another bite of his supper, "you're all ready to tear my head off for getting rough with Aang, and after I shut down a few of your attacks, you're no longer interested in turning me into a bloody stain."
Toph, who hadn't uncrossed her arms since they sat down, snorted and blew some strands of hair out of her face.
"Don't think I haven't quite yet disqualified that option, freak."
Katara's expression hadn't changed in the slightest from when she was attacking him, to sitting across from him now. At any moment, he wouldn't have been surprised if she instigated a rematch, but when she spoke there was a reserved calm in her voice.
"No one has been able to bend more than a single element for as long as recorded history has been taken down, save for the Avatar. You just showed us something that everyone on the planet would call an impossibility."
Popping a slice of cheese into his mouth, Sasuke held up a hand. "I need someone to explain this 'bending' to me."
As he saw incredulous looks passed amongst the small group, he realized that what he had done would likely have been the equivalent of performing a great fireball jutsu from where he was from and then promptly asking what a jutsu was.
Where I'm from… where AM I from?
His aggravation began to resurface and he shook it aside, as he clarified, "Where I come from, it's not called that, and I need to know as much as I can about the energy flow you possess in this universe. What allows for this 'bending' as well as what can be done with it?"
Katara looked around as if to see if anyone was willing to provide an appropriate answer, but as she opened her mouth to likely delve into an explanation, her father beat her to the punch; Sasuke noticed the slight aggravation that seemed to pass over her face as he did so.
"Bending of the elements is an ability that is inherited by people of the Four Nations. Some are born without this gift, but the ones who are so lucky find that they are capable of harnessing one of the four elements to their will. Skill and efficiency depend on experience, practice and the energy one is able and willing to exert. For example, if Toph here were wanting to bend a slab of earth to try and smack you clean off this temple, it would be to her like swatting a fly, given her overall ability and experience."
Cracking her knuckles like lightning, Toph grinned, "Gladly."
Sparing a consternated look at the girl, Hakoda continued, "But if she were to try and cave in this entire section of the temple, it would put a great strain on her and regardless of whether or not she was able to, she would be left exhausted afterwards."
Toph's smile was wiped off her face and she muttered something about "show you exhausted". Zuko spoke up for the first time since they had ventured to steal an airship.
"Each of the four elements are classified to each one of the four nations. If you're born of Fire Nation blood and are a bender, you will be able to harness fire. Same idea for the other three."
Sasuke ran his eyes carefully over each of them in turn, "And no one, save for this Avatar, can channel any more than one of these bending techniques."
Aang nodded at him before raising a hand, palm up. A small bit of water from Chit Sang's glass rose up alongside some dirt from beneath their feet. Both elements rose to swirl above Aang's hand, a sphere of air whirling around them and lastly, a small orb of fire appeared in the very center of the spectacle. For a moment, earth, water, air and fire hung in a suspended state, dancing amongst one another before the fire puffed out, the air flow ceased and the water and dirt fell back to earth. Looking down at the puddle that had collected at his feet as a result of his little show, Aang looked terribly lonely for a moment.
"My people were all wiped out when the Fire Nation learned that the Avatar had been reincarnated as an airbender."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow, "Reincarnated."
Seeming to remember where he was, Aang's miserable expression disappeared and he cleared his throat. Sasuke caught Katara looking at him with a deeply sympathetic look on her face as he continued.
"Yeah, when the an Avatar passes on, the essence of the Avatar is reincarnated in another bender. This time, it just happened to be me."
His anguished expression returned. "I found out who I was and what I was going to have to do, and it was too much for me. I ran away with Appa… "
"Appa?" Sasuke asked. Sokka gesticulated with his hands to charade something large and flying.
"The flying bison we mentioned."
Thoroughly bemused by the thought of a flying bison, Sasuke opted to put this aside for the moment.
"Ah." He gestured at Aang who carried on.
"… we got caught in a storm and crashed in the ocean. We probably would have died, but I was able to freeze us and it a hundred years before I woke up and found I was the last airbender."
This was something Sasuke had to raise a hand at.
"I'm sorry; a hundred years?"
Sokka dropped a hand on Aang's shoulder and shook him in a rough, but friendly way. "Yep, me and my sister found him on accident while we were fishing one day. And now, almost a year later, here we are, at the climax of perhaps the most destructive war ever fought."
He gave a laugh that sounded almost manic before trailing off and narrowing his eyes at Sasuke. The hand that had been on Aang's shoulder rose up to point accusingly.
"Alright, mister mystery, time for you to give some answers of your own. You come walking in here and just show that you can bend not one, not two, but three elements and—"
Pulling from his jagged memory bank of techniques, Sasuke raised a hand in the same fashion Aang had. Focusing a small portion of his chakra, he generated a sphere of air in his palm that swirled and howled quietly before gently flicking the Rasengan at the wall behind the group where it impacted the stone heavily, leaving a small crater in its wake. Sasuke somehow knew that the Rasengan he had just utilized was someone else's technique and his employment of it was nothing more than a copy, but at the redoubled expressions of shock directed his way, he figured his point had been made.
Sokka practically had to close his mouth which had fallen open to add in a voice of sheer disbelief, "Okay. Four elements."
Zuko was eying Sasuke with an expression of pure distrust. "Who are you really?"
Feeling a tinge of impatience, Sasuke replied bluntly, "If I knew, I wouldn't be here right now."
He decided to relate the other piece of the story he had left out of the equation. It was entirely possible they would all consider him a lunatic for saying it, but he knew what he had seen.
"Just before I broke out of my holding level, I was visited by I guess what you could call a spirit."
Katara raised her eyebrows at him, a telling expression of what she thought.
"A spirit."
He nodded. "Tall, blue and transparent, long white hair and beard." He noticed Aang perk up at the description.
"He told me that he wasn't sure how he was able to commune with me, but that my search for answers would become much more clear if I found the Avatar and aided him in his journey. He told me that if the Fire Lord was defeated, I would be able to pursue my quest freely."
Aang leaned towards him, looking as though Sasuke had just said something vitally important. "This old man… did he have an ornamental hairpiece?"
Sasuke nodded. Aang's eyes began to widen. "And was he wearing ceremonial robes?"
"I suppose so."
Aang got to his feet so quickly, he nearly tipped Sokka off his seat, but with a flick of Toph's finger, a stone pillar rose from the ground to right the unbalanced young man.
"That must have been Avatar Roku!"
"I thought you just said the Avatar could only be one person at a time."
Seeming to be too excited by this news to stand still, Aang began to pace back and forth in front of the fire. "I know, that's true, but the spirits of the Avatars of old have communed with me before. When I enter the spirit world, I'm able to talk with them, hold whole conversations."
He appeared to realize something and looked at Sasuke as though something had been spoiled for him.
"How were you able to talk to him?"
Sasuke shrugged and leaned back. "Trust me, he did most of the talking and it wasn't for very long. But he was clear to mention he wasn't sure how it was possible that I was able to see him. It was this Avatar Roku who reminded me of my name."
The young earthbender known as Haru looked hesitant to speak, but asked anyway. "What… what do you remember?"
Wishing terribly that he could give a better answer, both to them and himself, Sasuke looked at the ground. "Very little. Things come and go like names and faces, but they are there and gone like a blink of an eye. The only things that seem to be solidly retained are techniques, jutsu, as I know them to be."
He raised his hand again and summoned Chidori; lightning crackled around his hand and wrist violently and several members of the group recoiled before he banished the jutsu.
"I remember these techniques and how to use them, but I've found that they seem to wear on he greater then they did… wherever I was before. I don't remember how exactly I know this, but when I fought Azula and Mai, using jutsu seemed to wear me down more than they should have."
Aang gave him a hopeful shrug. "Maybe that'll come back to you, like I'm sure your memories will."
Sasuke laced his fingers and rested his face against them, muttering sullenly, "They'd better."
There was a pause before Suki leaned in to add a thought of her own. "You seemed to be pretty handsy with the warden back in the gondola, like you thought he knew something. Was anything he said indicative of some potential answers?"
Thankful for the reminder, Sasuke closed his eyes, trying hard to think.
"There was… when I was paralyzed and confined, he brought a new penal officer to show me off to. He said several things that he claimed to all be rumor passed along the soldiers from the Fire Nation capital all the way to the prison, but I suppose it happens to be my best lead."
Hakoda brought a hand up to stroke his chin thoughtfully. "And what exactly did he say? Anything that seemed even the slightest bit familiar?"
Eyes still closed, Sasuke drove his fingers into his temples. "Yes. I don't know how, but he mentioned that I had stepped into this world from within Sozin's Temple near the capital, directly in the presence of the Fire Lord."
He heard several surprised inhales and some soft murmuring before Zuko snapped, "You appeared to my father?! And he didn't kill you?!"
Several blurry images and words were beginning to resonate in his head, as he quietly replied.
"I remember nearly nothing of it at all, but the warden relayed that he believed I was of enough interest to send to the prison rather than having killed. It was… "
Sasuke began to remember something in sequence very vaguely. "I remember seeming to almost be looking in at the temple through a glass wall, like I was there, but not. I could… I could see who must have been the Fire Lord talking with… some priests, or something who said—"
"… if you are certain, your highness. If you truly intend to perform the Ritual of Sozin's Rites, we will confer with the other scholars and ensure the steps are as we believe them to be. They are few, but if… your highness, behind you!"
Sasuke snapped his eyes open as his memory became a rush of heat and flame overtook everything else. "Ritual of Sozin's Rites. That's all I remember before I awoke in the prison. Someone was telling the Fire Lord about this ritual and how they were going to make sure its steps were accurate."
No one seemed to react to these words with any particular emotion and Sasuke believed that perhaps this information was hardly anything of real consequence before Zuko rose jerkily to his feet. Katara looked at him inquisitively. "Zuko, what is it?"
Zuko's face had paled badly and he looked rather as though he were about to be sick. He turned to look at Haru with somewhat wild eyes.
"You said there was a library here? With historical practices of all Four Nations?"
Haru nodded, looking perplexed by the expression Zuko was giving him.
"Yeah, if you go down that set of stairs, it's down the fourth hall on the right and then up that set of stairs. I think the traditions and practices section was on left section… ?"
Without a reply, Zuko had already taken off in the direction he had been pointed towards; everyone watched him run as though he had the entire world chasing him as he disappeared into the temple. Toph turned her head in the direction he had run off in, "Anyone know what's up with him?"
Katara continued to stare at the doorway Zuko had disappeared into with a look of concern.
"I don't know… but if the Fire Lord is up to something else beyond just using the power of Sozin's Comet… that might not bode well."
Sokka rubbed his face tiredly. "Yeah, like we weren't already at a huge disadvantage. Less than two weeks to go, and we're still in a hole and Aang hasn't even mastered firebending yet."
Pushing aside his own frustration at not being able to remember more than a single chunk of dialogue, Sasuke sighed and sat up straight.
"Alright. So what's the plan?"
Attention returned to him and Aang asked, "Plan?"
Sasuke nodded. "Yeah, plan. I've been told my best course of action is to help you throw down this Fire Lord, and I intend to do so."
An uncomfortable silence fell over the group and Sasuke began to realize that even if he had stumbled across the very person he had wanted to meet, his second goal was starting to feel a little less than achievable.
"What do you think this is about?"
Mai looked over at Ty Lee who had been staring out at Azula alongside her over the past hour as midday had come. She wouldn't have denied that she had looked over to the princess a fair few times, but Ty Lee had been watching her as observantly as a hawk.
Mai feigned a lack of interest as she examined her fingernails, "Who knows? Her father might have had something particularly urgent come up that he needed Azula for."
Fingers roped tightly around the handrail in front of the large window, Ty Lee continued looking out the window nervously.
"More important than sending her after the Avatar? He knows she's the one with the best chance of success, and he trusts her more than any of his generals or operatives."
Mai sighed. "I don't know what to tell you other than that it has to be pretty important."
She resumed her act of appearing entirely uninterested in the proceedings before she noticed that Ty Lee was now looking resolutely at her.
"What happened at the prison?"
Turning to look at her friend, Mai knew that even her mastery of apathy wouldn't get her out of this line of questioning, even as she asked pointlessly, "What do you mean?"
Ty Lee gave her an aggravated look.
"Don't bullshit me, Mai. I know the both of you have done a good job of covering it up since it happened, but the looks on your faces when I showed up are something I'll never forget."
When Mai didn't answer, Ty Lee scooted along the railing and grabbed her wrist gently. Mai looked over to see her friend's eyes were pleading. "Please. That guy did something to you both. I don't think there's anyone on the planet save for the Fire Lord himself that you two couldn't take down together. But not only does he slide past you both and get to me, he leaves you two looking like you'd seen ghosts."
Turning around to look out at where Azula had been standing poker-straight for the past hour, Mai sighed. It was something she had been spending a lot of time thinking from the moment she had awoken from it, though always in the back of her mind, as though calling it forward would be too damaging to her psyche. But Ty Lee deserved her honesty, and chances are, she wouldn't get a straight reply from Azula.
"I'm genuinely not sure. He must have got us with some drug, some toxin that made us hallucinate and knocked us out. I don't know about Azula, but I saw… things. They were too real, too vivid to be a dream though, I truly can't describe to you what it was like; I really thought they were happening until I woke up next to Azula and realized they had all been in my head."
Ty Lee inched closer still. "What things did you see?"
Mai tried to deflect. "Bad things."
"Come on, Mai. What did you see?"
Tilting her head back to look at the roof of the front cabin of the airship, Mai steeled herself. She had thought of them once already when they had first boarded their vessel and had locked herself in her room for a few minutes to cry and not be seen. She didn't want to look weak in front of anyone, especially not Ty Lee or Azula, and she convinced herself that she wouldn't cry now.
"I saw you. Azula. Zuko. My family. You were all… being tortured. Badly. I couldn't do anything except sit there and watch. I tried begging with whoever was doing it, but there was no one to plead with, nobody but that guy, but he was standing next to me, not actually doing any of it. Every whip that cracked, every hot poker that was jabbed, there was never any real figure doing it, just masses of shadow whose faces I couldn't see. I went to the prisoner then, I went on my knees and I cried and offered him anything if he would just stop this and leave you all alone, but he just stared at me with those damned eyes, I swear they were red and black, with shapes inside them, and I couldn't look away, I just—"
"Hey, hey, Mai. It's okay."
As she felt Ty Lee's hand wrap around her shoulder, Mai realized that despite herself, she had begun to ramp up to talk in an almost frenzied panic almost out of her control. There were no tears fortunately, but her brief loss of control were probably enough to indicate how bad she had been rattled. Taking in a deep breath to calm herself, she looked down at her hands which were clutching the railing just as Ty Lee's had moments ago.
"I'll never get just how real it was. I know people have been able to concoct some absolutely crazy drugs in the past several decades, but how this was able to create such a vivid scene… it was like he had orchestrated it himself, down to the wire. Everything was placed by him, everything I saw and felt were only consequences of his choices."
She let her voice dip down in its register as she muttered darkly, "When I see him again, I'm going to make him tell me how he did it. However I have to force him, I'll know what he did."
There was a pause as Ty Lee rested her head on Mai's shoulder who, though she would never admit it, relished the feeling of comfort it gave.
"I doubt Azula told you what she saw when—"
"When what?"
The both of them jumped away from each other as the sharp voice of Azula cut through the cabin that had previously only been occupied by the both of them. She must have walked in unnoticed while they were talking and was now staring at them expectantly, clearly waiting for an answer.
"When I saw what?"
In an act of quick thinking that surprised Mai, Ty Lee shrugged and finished, "… when you looked at the summons from your father. It looked like there was more to it then the soldier said."
Narrowing her eyes, Azula frowned.
"There was nothing more then his demands I return to the capital at once. It's not anyone's place, not mine, nor either of yours, to question why he would request my presence."
She marched towards the door that would lead towards the captain's quarters and wrenched open the metal door. Before she stepped through, she paused a moment and looked back with intense eyes.
"And I'd rather you two wouldn't theorize behind my back when it isn't your place to do so."
The door slammed shut behind her and Ty Lee jumped again; Mai leaned back on the railing, blowing out a sigh of relief.
"Not bad."
Ty Lee shrugged again and turned to look back out towards the open blue sky overshadowed by their airship's great mass.
"It's actually pretty easy, especially when everyone just assumes you're an airhead who couldn't even comprehend lying."
They spent a long several seconds looking out, shoulder to shoulder before Mai added in a low voice, "I don't know what she saw. Though I imagine if it was a drug or something to make someone see their worst fears or something, it would have its work cut out for it."
She looked over her shoulder at the doorway Azula had walked through, feeling a pang of sadness in her heart as she wished violently that she was wrong in saying,
"I don't know if she really has anything she'd be hurt over losing."
Katara was the first to see Zuko as he came staggering back over towards the fire looking perhaps worse than when he had left. He stumped weakly over to his seat and dropped down back on it, a heavy and ancient looking book in his hand that he set down beside him. Sokka leaned back and forth in his spot before cocking his head and asking, "Well, what's the verdict?"
For a moment, Zuko only shook his head, looking truly lost before he nudged the book with his toe. Katara couldn't have imagined him looking any more defeated.
"When Sasuke mentioned a 'Ritual of Sozin's Rites,' I had to know for sure."
He rested his head in his hands, looking as though he were trying very hard to come to terms with something.
"When I was younger, I learned about a bunch of rituals and practices that my great-grandfather and those before him had instilled as last resorts, final techniques to fall back on if all else failed. There was one like the 'Burning Interlude,' which supposedly create a giant firestorm at the cost of many sacrificed lives, or the 'Blackened' something, that was supposed to turn the oceans to fire or something like that…"
Sokka shook his head in a sharp rattling movement while holding up his hands.
"Whoa, whoa, I'm sorry. What?!"
Zuko nodded weakly.
"I know, they sound crazy. And none of them were tried to my knowledge at least from Sozin onward. There was this sense that not only were they too radical, but that they wouldn't work anyway. But when I heard that name… "
He sighed.
"I knew I had heard it before. And I knew that this temple, if it had a documentation on old traditions of other nations, it might list this one."
Silence fell before Aang finally asked quietly.
"What's your dad going to try and do?"
As though unable to summarize himself, Zuko lifted the sizable text onto his lap and opened to a page he had marked.
"Though the particulars of this specific ritual are largely unknown and based purely in Fire Nation text, at the cost of sacrificing a familial bond, a strong firebender might be able to harness power from Sozin's Comet itself, drawing on its strength to procure a powerful and permanent gain in ability."
He slammed the book shut and showed it angrily off his lap where it hit the ground with a thud. Katara felt her heart begin to gently pound a constant beat as she considered what this could mean; Sokka didn't wait to ponder the same.
"What kind of gain? What does it mean by 'familial bond'?"
Giving a short cry of distress, Zuko got to his feet and walked briskly away. Katara watched him ascend the steps where the airship had landed and he leaned against the pillar that overlooked the canyon, head bowed. Joining the collective in watching the agonized young man, Katara finally looked to her father who gave her a firm nod. Standing herself, Katara walked over to the large set of stairs and began to ascend them. She felt, more than saw, Aang, Sokka and Toph following close behind her.
When the reached the plateau, Katara did a double take as she saw Zuko's shoulders heaving gently. She never would have imagined him breaking down quite like this.
"Hey, Zuko. We won't let him get to you, you know." Toph's calm tone reminded Katara that she too could speak, and she nodded in consent.
"She's right. We're all here for you. We could even hide you away until after the comet passes."
Zuko whirled on them and the wet streaks that coursed down his face confirmed what his silent shaking had meant.
"You don't get it! I'm not scared of my father, or what he might do to me! I…"
He choked off and looked away again. "You wouldn't understand."
Aang stepped up quietly behind him until he was only a few feet away. As gently as he dared, he put a hand on Zuko's back and Katara felt a warm feeling spreading in her gut.
"Help us to."
Straightening his back, Zuko seemed to regain control of himself as he asked quietly, "During all your journeying, all your travels, who was the one person other than me who managed to stay just behind you?"
This was an easy question and Katara replied for the good of them all.
"Your sister."
Zuko nodded bitterly. "That's right. My perfect sister who could do no wrong in the eyes of my father, who always did everything better than me, who has always been able to track you guys down, and who was right there when we broke out of the prison and came back here."
Sokka massaged his wrists uncomfortably.
"You lost me."
Zuko waited a for several seconds before replying.
"All that considered, there's no reason she shouldn't have descended out of the sky with a fleet of airships, hours ago."
As this sank in, Aang looked towards the ground. "He's right. Azula should have been here by now."
Sokka shrugged. "I see that as a win, believe it or not. That psycho flamethrower being elsewhere and not here sounds pretty positive to me."
Aang slowly turned his head to look at Katara as the pieces clicked together. They exchanged pained looks as it finally settled with Sokka what was likely going to happen.
"Oh man."
Zuko sniffed a humorless laugh.
"Yeah."
The five of them shared a long silence as they considered what Ozai was intending to do. Katara found herself breaking the silence, not sure how best to approach the situation, but knowing Zuko needed to hear some kind of… anything, she spoke as gently as she could, "Zuko, I'm sorry."
He didn't say anything in reply; then, Sokka being Sokka blundered over words that should have stayed thoughts.
"I mean, she did kind of try to kill us all a bunch of times… and she zapped your uncle… and has completely disavowed you as a brother."
Toph snapped a punch into his side before he could dive any deeper down a path that shouldn't have been followed just then. He winced and looked over angrily, but as Katara sent him the best "shut up or I'll walk over there and pull your tongue out" look she could manage, he caught himself and settled on massaging his ribs.
Zuko hadn't seemed to take offense at his words, however and he bowed his head in clear indecision.
"I know she's done wrong by all of us, and maybe she shouldn't be forgiven for that… but… "
He finally turned to look at them and the agony in his eyes was enough to push Katara over to him and she pulled him into a hug. Zuko choked out the rest into her shoulder as she felt him shake.
"She's my sister."
Katara looked over his shoulder at Aang who looked terribly consternated himself, but she could tell his mind was doing gymnastics. He put his hands on his head and shrugged, "Maybe… I don't know, maybe we can… "
Sokka interrupted then, clearly not reserved any longer about speaking his peace.
"Oh, no! No, no, no! We are not going to try some insane stunt to save his psychopath sister!"
Aang put up his hands in a sign of surrender. "Sokka, relax! I was just thinking out loud."
Obviously unsure of how to reply to that, Sokka waved his hand spastically at Aang for a second before adding, "Well, stop it! We do not need this kind of problem right now, not with how little time we have, and not with what's at stake!"
Katara pulled away from Zuko and he wiped his face on his sleeve. His voice was broken and quiet, but it spoke with a level of resolve that she remembered hearing from him more than once before.
"I don't want any of you risking yourselves for this… but I have to try."
At this, Katara found her tongue and moved from a hug to putting her hands on his shoulders, forcing him to look into her eyes.
"Zuko, no. That's not happening."
He looked at her desperately. "The capital is half the distance between here and Boiling Rock, I could make it in time and warn her… "
Aang came up beside Katara and gave Zuko a pained look.
"She'd never believe you and you would be captured, or killed."
An angry fire began to grow in his eyes then and he looked to Katara. "So what?! I have to try! Didn't I stand beside you when you felt you had no choice in finding the man who killed your mother?! "
Feeling her throat tighten, Katara was relieved when Aang spoke on her behalf. "That was different. He was just a common farmer that you hunted down on your own accord. This would be a suicide mission, for any one of us."
Toph walked up quietly, her bare feet making hardly a sound, "We need you here, Zuko. We lose you, we lose the only chance we have of teaching Aang firebending. And there go our chances of taking your darling dad down."
He flicked his gaze between each of them, looking in a frenzy for any sort of sympathy with his plight. Katara could see him reach the moment where he knew that there was nothing he could say that would convince them and he grit his teeth, and turned his back.
"I can't give up on her. Father I know has to be defeated, but… you might not believe it, but I know there's hope in her."
Katara found it a great relief that Sokka didn't snort in reply to that. Zuko continued, "She's sacrificed every piece of herself, of her humanity in the belief that we as a nation have divine right over all, something my grandfather and father tried to instill in both of us since before I can remember. She's fallen for that dream, and now she's about to die for it."
He didn't turn around, but Katara watched as a tear hit the ground in front of his feet, soaking into it and expanding into a damp spot that glowed in the afternoon sun.
"Can't you understand that she and my uncle are all I have left? Even if she hates me forever, even if she never comes around… I'll still fight for her."
Genuinely amazed by his maturity, but seeing no recourse for the path he wanted to take, Katara lowered her head. A look at her companions told her that she wasn't alone in her problem. The four of them stood behind Zuko, wishing there was anything they could do to ease his pain, to try and achieve some compromise.
But there is none.
Clenching her fist, Katara stared at the ground as though demanding that the very dirt itself provide her a solution.
"I'll go."
She spun on her heel as a voice that didn't belong to herself, Sokka, Aang or Toph resounded behind her.
Sasuke was standing at the top of the stairs, leaning against another pillar with his arms crossed, looking as obstinately emotionless as he had since he arrived. Feeling no small amount of indignation, Katara took an angry step in his direction.
"Were you eavesdropping on us?!"
He shrugged. "Just listening."
Sokka stepped up behind her, looking as angry as Katara felt. "So, eavesdropping."
He shrugged again and Katara felt her anger begin to bubble even further. "How long were you standing there?!"
Toph kicked the dirt absently, "Since Sokka turned his brain on and realized why this was upsetting Zuko so badly."
Now Katara whirled on Toph who was looking thoroughly as though this were not that big of a deal.
"He was there that entire time and you didn't think to say—"
Sasuke took a step towards them. "Don't get angry at her. Just trying to offer a solution."
It was a long moment before Katara's anger subsided enough for her to even remember what that reason was. Behind her, she heard Zuko's voice rise up, still broken, but inquisitive now.
"You'd do what…?"
Sighing, Sasuke rubbed the handle of his sword absently. "I'll take a trip over to your dad's house and either warn your sister away from the highest form of corporal punishment, or force her out of there if I have to."
Hardly able to believe what she was hearing, Sokka spoke her peace for her, "Oh, yeah? And in what universe do you find it a good idea to risk yourself for a favor to someone you barely know, to save someone who's done nothing but try and kill you on your only encounter."
Sasuke's eyes were unreadable black pits as he replied flatly.
"The only lead I have on recovering who and what I am is to help the Avatar. The Avatar needs to beat the Fire Lord. The Fire Lord only gets beat if, as you say, the Avatar learns firebending on top of the other three forms."
Inclining his head towards Zuko, he finished, "And if this feckless, emotionally stunted bastard gets himself killed before doing his due diligence and teaching Aang, that sets my own plans back a bit."
Pacing a few steps back and forth, Sasuke spoke as matter-of-factly as if talking to a group of toddlers who were arguing over a snow fort; Katara felt her disdain for him growing by the minute.
"So, the only way I see it is Zuko is only going to keep his nose out of this business if his sister is given a fighting chance. I'll go and be that bearer of bad news if you stay put and do your damn job."
Any other time, Katara would have expected to see Zuko fly off the hinge at a verbal abusing like that, but as she turned to see his reply to this proposal, she saw only pain, and the barest glimmer of hope in his eyes. Sokka took an arrogant step towards Sasuke, crossing his arms in mock.
"And what makes you think you have any chance of getting past all those soldiers and guard to even reach Azula in the first place? Maybe you held her and Mai off before, but that could have been luck; Azula might have thought you were cute for all we know and went easy."
"Funny," said Sasuke without smiling, "but I will be able to reach her. I'll man the airship and conjure up a nice headwind for myself. Infiltrating the capital won't be problem, I have that figured already. And as for anyone who gets in my way… "
His eyes crossed over Katara's for a moment and she felt a sudden chill run up her spine before Sasuke twitched. It was a subtle movement, one she might have missed if she hadn't been looking at him when he did move, but the next thing she knew, he wasn't standing there anymore.
"… I'm not in whatever state I was when the Fire Lord and his minions got the best of me."
Katara uttered a short scream as she heard his voice just behind her and she spun again, instinctively gathering a small collection of water from the air temple's basin just down the stone steps and forming it into a tight hammer of liquid. He remained where he had moved himself to, standing back to back with her; she realized that if he hadn't spoken, she never would have noticed that he was just behind her.
Turning slowly, Sasuke regarded them with an unblinking, challenging stare.
"Now are you going to give me directions, or are we going to do this again?"
Doing a last check over the make of the small airship and its instruments, Sasuke looked out over the long grassy plain that he and his vessel were alighted on. Beneath him was the massive and expansive temple, though he would never have guessed its existence if he hadn't been down there just minutes ago. The sun beat down on him with a firm warmth as the blue sky beckoned to him and he prepared to board.
Zuko had taken him on a short spin up top to familiarize him with how to fly it, the others following closely on the flying bison which Sasuke had been surprised to see was exactly as they had described it. After placing it down on the grass, there had been a short bout of awkward goodbyes; Sasuke had only known them for a matter of hours, save for Sokka who he had escaped this prison with the previous afternoon. It was clear that his sister had no time for his attitude, or his manners and had not dismounted the beast Sasuke now knew to be called Appa, and had remained on his saddle, not looking in his direction.
Sokka too seemed to have lost the warmth he had initially spared Sasuke, and regarded him with suspicious looks and offered him the barest wish of luck before scooting away. Aang was a different story and Sasuke could tell the kid's range of emotions towards him were vast; there must have been a part of him that wanted to like him, another part that was warning of distrust, and another still that found him too dangerous and unpredictable to trust or have around. All of this compounded with the fact that he clearly wanted Sasuke to succeed if only because of what it meant to Zuko. He had offered an awkward handshake and wished safe travels before turning jerkily to climb back aboard the bison.
The girl known as Toph had seemed more indifferent to the situation which Sasuke had found odd, considering how antagonistic she had initially been towards him. Instead of a barrage of insults and remarks on how she hoped he might go down in the middle of the ocean, she gave him a short "good luck" and retreated to climb into the back of the bison's saddle.
Zuko had been the last to leave Sasuke to his preparations and clearly had a great deal he wanted to say, but couldn't find the words for. He had settled on a handshake as Aang had and murmured his thanks in a fumbling of words before turning around sharply to be the last to board Appa and the bison had flown them back down into the ravine and to the temple.
A good ten minutes later, Sasuke was confident he could pilot the small airship successfully and make good time; he had been given the estimate that the Fire Nation's capital would be about four hours west, but he was sure he could cut that down slightly. If all went well, he would be able to reach the capital by sunset.
The airship was small, with a balloon only about the size of Appa and a basketed cabin beneath that could hold about seven or eight people without feeling too cramped. Sasuke climbed in and closed the hatch, double checked his evening meal a last time to make sure it hadn't mysteriously disappeared and turned to the burner.
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu," he said, and blew a sizeable flame to reignite the burner and, disabling the anchors, the airship lurched from the grassy field and began to climb into the sky. After a period of ascension, Sasuke walked to the back of the ship and looked for a place to lie down and doze. With the sealing technique he had cast, he had every assurance that his craft would maintain a current course for the capital and the first real Fire Nation military outpost was at least an hour away. That was just enough time to get a little shut eye and mentally prepare for when—
"So, jutsu, huh?"
Snarling, Sasuke whirled with his Sharingan prepared to let loose at the intruder. Toph was leaning over the central metal box that composed the burner, looking at the rising fire, as much as a blind person could look.
"Zuko just has to move around like a monkey with ants eating at its privates to generate anything crazy, but you get a full fire going with just a few words."
Turning to see how easy it would be to turn around and drop the stowaway off, Sasuke gave her an annoyed glance he knew she couldn't see.
"What exactly do you think you're doing?"
She shrugged and dropped onto the floor where she spread herself out like a lethargic starfish.
"Few things. Coming along is one of them. Making sure you do what you promised is another."
Adjusting the controls that dealt with the airship's height, Sasuke listened to her ramble on behind him.
"I mean, if we're being frank here, nobody trusts you, not even Aang and he's usually pretty easy to win over. I don't think anyone has quite come around to the fact that you're a complete freak as far as bending is concerned, and I'm betting with all that, no one even really thought to think about the fact that you just straight up left."
Preparing to turn the ship around, Sasuke replied offhandedly, "As long as Zuko stays put and works on that training, I don't care what anyone thinks."
Topher seemed to think about this before snapping at him quickly as the airship began to turn.
"Don't even think about taking me back. I've made up my mind to come along and keep an eye on you. Proverbially anyway."
He didn't answer and she walked up behind him, "No one knows I left and no one's going to go missing me for a while. I said I was going into the temple to practice and look around; no one's going to notice I'm gone for a long time."
Sasuke didn't reply still, but jumped as Toph punched him in the rear.
"Hey, are you listening to me? I'm not ready to risk my life sneaking into the capital, not to mention my absolute hatred of heights just to have you try and ditch me."
Glaring at her, Sasuke growled, "Hatred of heights, hmm?"
The air was permeated then by a scream from Toph who found herself very quickly being dangled over the side of the floating vessel by her ankle. Gripping her tightly, Sasuke watched her struggle for a moment with satisfaction as her tune quickly changed.
"Hey, hey, hey, I'm sorry, look, I wasn't trying to imply anything, this was just a whim!"
Peering over the side of the airship that was now close to approaching the first layer of clouds, Sasuke looked back to the girl he was currently suspending several thousand feet in the air.
"Hard to imagine how high up we are, isn't it? When you can't see, we could be ten feet, or ten thousand feet. Care to take a guess?"
She groaned and struggled against him further, arms flailing to try and find purchase anywhere. Sasuke continued, "Maybe on the ground, you're some kind of big name, but no earth and no sight make you look pretty hopeless to me."
"Let me go!"
"You sure you want that?"
He loosened his grip on her ankle just long enough for her to feel the lack of control and Toph screamed again. Sasuke closed his eyes and thought for a moment.
It was stupid of him to not have looked around the entire burner box to make sure that no one had been there, but with the reaction he had received, it had been the furthest thing from his mind that anyone would try and tag along. And now he had this girl insisting she come along for no other reason than to make sure he kept his word to Zuko.
He had only barely began to turn his vessel, and bringing her back would zap away about an hour of his time, the canyon that the air temple was sewn into was just a slight jagged cut on the horizon now. Sighing as logic dictated his course, he lifted Toph back around and dropped her. She had time for a last scream as she fell a total of about a foot before landing on the floor of the basket in a heap.
Sasuke made sure his voice was firm and incontestable, "You'll come along and you'll do as I say."
He turned to redirect their course and she repeated behind him as she picked herself off the floor, "I'll come along and I'll do as I say."
Briefly stunned by her immediate return to disobedience, Sasuke turned to see her already waving her hand in submission. "Don't worry, freak, I won't cause trouble."
Watching her a moment longer, Sasuke finished correcting their course and, after making sure they were still ascending at a soft, but steady incline, he dropped down in the back of the airship's basket and laid back on his satchel of food and meager supplies. He was surprised when Toph walked over to sit down relatively close to him, something he wouldn't have expected considering their brief, yet troubled history.
"So, what's the plan?"
Closing his eyes, Sasuke replied back with an amount of snark worthy of Toph, "The plan is a plan that I thought of and that I'm going to use when we get to the capital."
She snorted, "Nice."
Allowing himself a brief smile, Sasuke returned to trying to doze before Toph gave him a final surprise. Scooting herself in his direction, she laid her head down over his shins as she adjusted herself into a comfortable position of her own.
"Just in case you get any funny ideas and try to ditch me again. You're not going anywhere without me knowing about it."
He stared back at her unseeing eyes for a moment before shrugging. "Have it your way."
Seeming to find lying on her back would the most comfortable use of her newfound leg pillow, Toph let out a sigh as the light breeze flowing past them tousled her hair.
"I'm not going to ask how you managed to make this ship go exactly where we need to, I'm guessing you have more up your sleeve then just cramping on Aang's style. I guess I'm just hoping you really do have a plan."
Speaking his last words before drifting off, Sasuke did his best to not sound too malicious. "Oh, I've got a plan. But you're going to absolutely hate it."
He became exceptionally perplexed then at how guilty he felt for what he was going to do.
Watching Zuko and Aang dance with all the ferocity and grace of the fire that swirled around them, Katara tried not to think about what had transpired earlier that day.
Zuko, I'm so sorry.
He appeared to have bought Sasuke's pretense of wanting to help, but she knew better. Sasuke was long gone and wasn't coming back. He was going to find his own path to answers and it didn't involve helping Aang or Zuko. Katara only let him make off with their only other means of transportation because she wanted him gone. Worse than a liar, he was dangerous, and had been glad to see him go.
Sokka walked up alongside her to look out over the pair of them training.
"What are you thinking?"
Katara sighed, "I feel bad for Zuko."
Blowing out a long breath of his own, Sokka dropped down to sit next to her. "Yeah, I can't believe I'm feeling bad for him considering this is Azula we're talking about, but the poor guy doesn't have much."
Giving her brother a sideways glance, Katara clarified.
"I mean about trusting Sasuke."
Blinking, Sokka nodded. "Yeah that too."
Turning to fully face her brother, she looked over him carefully.
"You don't think he's actually going to try and make it to the capital, do you?"
Matter of factly, Sokka nodded again, more firmly. "Yeah, I do."
He returned her look with a sad smile, "I just don't think he has a chance of actually getting done what Zuko is hoping for."
Staring at her brother in utter bewilderment, Katara shook her head to annunciate her feeling.
"I don't believe this. You, who never trust anyone, are taking that guy at his word?"
Sokka stretched his legs and looked thoughtfully off towards nothing in particular. "I'm not expecting you to understand, sis. Just a thing that I feel."
He kept looking off and trailed on, "When we first met Aang, I didn't believe a word of it. I felt the same way with just about everyone we ran into, not wanting to believe what I heard. And that was it, I didn't want to believe it."
From behind them, Suki called out, "Sokka, you coming?"
He waved an affirmative and stood up. Giving Katara a last sheepish look, he said, "You sound an awful lot like me, Katara. Maybe you just can't stand the idea of someone actually being willing to help us."
And he ran off to join Suki, leaving Katara to watch the spectacle of flames put on by Zuko and Aang, wondering how in the world her brother could sound so smart and still be so wrong.
Stepping off the ramp from her airship, Azula looked around at the capital that she had only departed yesterday. She would never lament being home, but the writhing resentment for her father's recall made the usual taste of seeing her city a bit sour.
On her right, Ty Lee looked towards the north sky, "Looking like it's going to storm."
On her left Mai snapped back, "Ty Lee there hasn't been rain, let alone a storm over the capital in decades."
The acrobat shrugged, "Looks awful black to me."
Allowing herself a moment to regard the dark clouds gathering on the horizon, Azula might have admitted at any other time that Ty Lee looked like she could be right. But the storm would likely pass by the capital on its northwestern side as all storm fronts did.
But she was in no mood to talk about the weather.
I intend to get to the bottom of this immediately.
Without a word, she began a brisk walk towards her father's palace, Mai and Ty Lee in tow; she made it only halfway to the royal carriers before a high ranking officer, flanked by a small squad of upper guard.
He bowed low to her, "Your majesty, your father has sent me to collect you."
She regarded him disdainfully.
"Obviously. I'm already on my way to see him however, consider your orders outdated."
He looked perplexed at her chiding, but didn't move out of her way. "Ah, yes, your highness, but… he informed me that this guard was to escort you personally to the palace."
Raising an eyebrow, Azula gave him a look. "As you can see, I already have an escort with my two right hands. Your men will not be necessary."
He still didn't move.
"Fire Lord Ozai was quite insistent, your highness."
Ty Lee tugged at Azula's robes. "It's alright, 'Zula."
Jerking her arm free of her friend's grip, Azula stepped toward the captain of the guard and jutted her chin furiously in his direction.
"I highly suggest you don't try and find out which of us is more insistent. These two will be my accompanying guard to the palace, and if you speak another word, I'll have you thrown from Azulon's tower."
This finally seemed enough to sway him, and he waved his guards back before standing back to let them pass; storming past him, Azula continued towards the royal carriers. Behind her, Ty Lee spoke quietly.
"That was really sweet, Azula."
Sniffing indifferently, the princess flicked a look back.
"Don't let it go your head. "
But as she entered her personal palanquin, she felt her frustration with the situation fade away ever so briefly as she looked back to see Mai and Ty Lee offering her grateful smiles. She snapped her fingers and the two of them climbed into palanquin's of their own and the small procession began towards the palace of her father.
And as the afternoon grew dark at an unusually quick pace, thunder rolled in the distance.